March 16, 2003

Cradle 2 the Grave

By PETER M. NICHOLS

PARENTAL NOTES

VIOLENCE Nonstop and noninvolving. Streaks of blood are sighted now and then, but the action, while plenty violent, is strictly and clearly stunt stuff.

SEX When PG-13 turns to R, this category heats up a notch or two, but sexually speaking the film is pretty much a fizzle. A steamy striptease is going well when the man suddenly leaps up and slugs the woman.

PROFANITY A lot and completely R-rated.

FOR WHICH CHILDREN?

AGES 11-13 Totally brainless entertainment, but for those who are allowed to attend R-rated movies, properly chaperoned, there have been more offensive films. This is not a recommendation.

AGES 14-17 According to family guidelines.

hat's one way to descend a half-dozen floors without using an elevator, stairs or rope? Su (Jet Li) hops off a balcony and drops from terrace railing to terrace railing using nothing but his fingertips. Su, an agent of the Taiwanese Central Intelligence Agency (yes, they have one, too) needs access to a certain apartment, where he dismantles a man with a few kicks and chops and places a phone call.

In this film cellphones go off every few seconds with alarming bits of news: police converging, double-crosses jelling, relatives being kidnapped. Su phones Tony Fait (the rapper DMX) who has just made a daring entry into a diamond company through the Los Angeles subway system, blown the vault with a rocket and is about to make off with a couple of sacks of gems.

That's fine with Su, but he warns Tony not to take a particular bag of diamonds.

Tony ignores him but loses the stones during a sloppy getaway. Various parties phone in, expressing interest. Ling (Mr. Dacascos), Su's former partner turned laughably vicious gangster, seizes Tony's young daughter and reason for living (Paige Hurd). Produce the diamonds or it won't go well for her. Su and Tony haven't gotten along, but now they join forces. Phone calls direct them here and there for furious battles with whomever.

The deft Su, about five feet tall, beats up a dozen goons at a fight club. Los Angeles, as we know, likes its helicopter overviews of car chases. Tony frustrates one such broadcast by disappearing inside a building on his all-terrain vehicle. And those diamonds are really little pieces of "synthetic plutonium" coveted by agitated arms dealers. The Tony-Su team brings on a tank.